Why are cell phones so expensive?

[Cardinal]

@lawoot

I’d buy one. All I want is a box that takes phone calls. I don’t NEED my phone to play games, tell me where I’m standing, remember phone numbers and so on. I can do those things by myself, thank you.

Seriously, you can remember all those phone numbers? I must have 40 in mine. Do you carry an address/phone book, too?

[Finagle]

@SmartAleq

Well, here’s an article which points out at least one reason cell phones shouldn’t be cheap:

Well, here’s an article which points out at least one reason cell phones shouldn’t be cheap:
"There is an even deadlier reason why it is critical that old phones don’t get tossed away- people are literally dying for them. The legacy of “blood diamonds” is well known, however the fact that a similar arrangement exists to mine coltan (Columbium Tantalum) is lesser known. Tantalum is a superconductor, "

Well, that article was written by a scientific illiterate, so I’m not sure how much credit I want to give to him from a political awareness viewpoint. While tantalum will become a superconductor if you lower the temperature to some ridiculously low level, the feature that makes it desirable for capacitors is its ability to form a thin oxide layer.. And tantalum capacitors have been around long before cell phones, so I’m not sure why this writer is picking on cell phones in particular, and not DVD players or computers.

[Cardinal]

@aeropl

The good news: Companies are competing to produce really cheap phones. Motorola designed one to cost less than $40.
The bad news: They are only being sold in third world countries.

Plus, there’s the recent problem in America of needing a gps function to activate a phone. The Verizon Wireless store refused to activate my old second-hand phone because of the new FCC requirements. Apparently that phone is now junk, because it’s illegal to activate it.

[UncleBeer]

@Eleusis

[Used Motoral StarTac, $14.95.

He wants a used StarTac, I’ll give him mine. With a car charger, wall outlet charger, leather clamshell and two good batteries. Works on the Sprint PCS network.

[Pork_Rind]

@Cardinal

Plus, there’s the recent problem in America of needing a gps function to activate a phone. The Verizon Wireless store refused to activate my old second-hand phone because of the new FCC requirements. Apparently that phone is now junk, because it’s illegal to activate it.

I’ve got to believe that is a load of BS designed to intimidate you into buying a new phone. I am in the position where I am able to get my hands on the upcoming phones that will be sold by a different major US carrier and I can say that all of the phones I’ve seen for late this year/early next year release were without GPS functionality.

[Cardinal]

@Pork Rind

I’ve got to believe that is a load of BS designed to intimidate you into buying a new phone. I am in the position where I am able to get my hands on the upcoming phones that will be sold by a different major US carrier and I can say that all of the phones I’ve seen for late this year/early next year release were without GPS functionality.

This wasn’t gps that would tell you where you were, it was supposedly for 911 calls. Has anyone else heard about this?